Stimulus Check Scams...They Could Be After You

Rudy Rodriquez

Anna Lee Moore

Janna Kiehl, Better Business Bureau

The Panhandle is a target for Stimulus Check scams and many people are taking the bait.

The local Better Business Bureau says it receives dozens of calls daily from scam victims. They say scammers usually say they are with the Department of Treasury and they need your bank account information to deposit your stimulus check.

Local man Rudy Rodriquez says this week he received one of those calls and now his account is completely empty.

"So I called my bank and sure enough the little money that I did have was gone," he says.

Five hundred dollars for six months. It sounded pretty good to 19-year-old Rodriquez. A little too good.

"I was just thinking because you know how we were getting the other check along with our income tax so I was thinking well maybe I do get more than I'm supposed to get, maybe I do get this money. I just didn't really think and process it. I just thought it's the government, it's money, it's free."

The Better Business Bureau says you should never give out your information no matter who says they're calling and Anna Lee Moore says she is glad she didn't.

"I don't know why anyone would be so gullible but then there are so many people who need money and need to get it but don't listen to them don't listen to what they say," she says.

Bureau CEO Janna Kiehl says you know they are scammers because the government does not have the man power to make so many calls.

She says,"Think about it. You can't get a hold of those people when you need them. It's difficult for them to return a call probably. It would take months and months, they just don't have the people out there calling you."

The scams are not only by phone. If one is delivered to your e-mail inbox and the best thing to do is delete it.

To report scammer harrassment call the Public Utility Commission at 1-888-782-8477

After controversial comments from President Donald Trump over the weekend, multiple teams in the NFL joined together, taking a knee and linking arms during the national anthem to show solidarity to remarks they saw as being divisive.

After controversial comments from President Donald Trump over the weekend, multiple teams in the NFL joined together, taking a knee and linking arms during the national anthem to show solidarity to remarks they saw as being divisive.